Donnelly Leads Lady Quakers into Basketball Playoffs

When 17-year-old Bealela Donnelly leads the Lady Quakers onto the basketball court next Tuesday, the Friends School senior will be starting a quest for a second championship this school year.  In the fall, she was a member of the school's volleyball team, which won the C Conference of Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland (IAAM).

"I think we have a good shot of winning this year," the resident of the Chatham neighborhood in North Baltimore said.  To do so, they will have to get past a semi-final game against St. John's Catholic Prep in Frederick, the top-seeded team whose only loss this season was a two-point game against Friends in mid-January.

Actually, Donnelly feels that Catholic High School of Baltimore may be the toughest challenge.  The 12-5 Lady Quakers dropped two games to the East Baltimore school this season, a nine-point loss in late January and a one-point overtime defeat at Friends on Feb. 4.

"The first time we played them, we had a 24-point deficit in the third quarter and we brought it back to four, which was good," Donnelly said.  "That was a big struggle and showed them the type of team we are." 

The one-point overtime loss was "rough," Donnelly said.

From the perspective of Lady Quakers coach Matt Lang, the St. John's game is crucial.

"We happen to match up with them pretty well," Lang said.  "But they are an excellent team and very well coached.  We will have to beat St. John's at St. John's to get to the championship game."

 Lang has been Donnelly's coach for the three years she has been starting for the Lady Quakers. 

"She athletically is supremely gifted and at times afraid to leverage all the skills that she has, because she is such a nice girl," he said

"But I'll tell you, she is a ferocious competitor and I've had other coaches come up and say, 'that's the first time my player was scared to play somebody.'  And they will follow up with, 'and she's the nicest kid they've ever played," Lang said.

The coach has seen the 5'11" center/small forward blossom on the offensive side of the court this season.

"This year, she's added an offensive element" to her game that previously featured rebounding and solid defensive skills, Lang said.

Donnelly credits a summer playing for the Columbia Ravens in AAU ball with her improved offensive game.

"[The AAU team] was more focused on scoring.  If you want to score, you have to go and do it, and I think that really helped me," she said.  "My coaches worked with me to build confidence.   That's something I really lacked in the past, so I felt that was the last little thing I needed to get together."

Lang agreed with Donnelly's assessment. 

"As a coach, you can always correct and improve someone's defense very, very quickly, but offense is as much mental as it is physical.  The mental part of it is having the confidence and having an understanding of where, when and how you should shoot.  She got to play, she got to shoot.  It really helped," he said.

Donnelly's  adjustments to the double and triple-teaming defenses she has faced has also impressed Lang. 

"The double and triple-teams have brought her scoring average down but have increased her assists, so we're not scoring any less," he said.

"I've never experienced that before, so it's been kind of a struggle," Donnelly said.  "But it's good because now it's helping the whole team.  We're starting to realize that when I'm triple-teamed, I just slide down and I'll pass to them."

Even with the added defensive attention she is receiving, Donnelly is averaging 18.5 points a game.  She has scored in double figures in all but one of her games and topped the 20-point barrier seven times.

The all-around player has reached double figures in points and rebounds in 11 of her 17 games, including the first game against Catholic, in which she scored 26 points and had 23 rebounds.  In a lopsided win over Oldfields in early January, Donnelly had a triple-triple, with 28 points, 12 rebounds and 10 steals.

In addition to enjoying a top year on the basketball court, Donnelly is also excelling in the classroom.

"My grades are good—senior year is actually better than my GPA before," Donnelly said.

She said there are "always interesting and engaging ways to be involved in class" at the North Charles Street school.  Among her favorite courses was an American government history course she took last semester.

As for college, her choices are as varied as her possible majors.

"I have no idea what my major will be," she laughed.  "It changes from week to week—sometimes it is pre-med, sometimes I want to do business management, sometimes psychology, sometimes speech therapy, so it varies often."

She has applied to 11 schools and has already been accepted at the College of Wooster, Elon University and Case Western Reserve University.

Her final school choice will boil down to whether she wants to continue her basketball career.

"Not all of the schools are interested in me for basketball, so I have to decide, do I really like the school enough to where I can go and not play varsity, or do I feel that I need to go somewhere where I can play varsity?" she said.

Meanwhile, off the court at Friends, Donnelly will expand her status as a volunteer middle school math tutor in the spring. 

"I can only tutor one kid just once per week during basketball season, but in the spring I'll probably pick up one or two more and work with them," she said.

 Donnelly's other extra-curricular activities include serving as club president of the school's Middle Eastern Dance Club and participating with the student diversity leadership club.

Correction: The name of the athletic associate Friends School competes in has been changed to the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland.